A New Year's Wish: Noticing and Tending the Flame

A flame burns within each of us, shedding its light on the path ahead and warming us.  It may flicker when we waver in our values, but it grows brighter when we move toward the Person-Meant-To-Be.

An Individual Flame

At times when we neglect this flame, it may seem to go out.  At other times, when we over-stoke our own worth at the expense of others, a firestorm may leap out hurting those around us.

A Firestorm

The stances of Contemplative Dialogue (contemplative noticing or mindfulness; nondefended learning; and nonviolence) will help us cultivate and transform this inner flame into a life-giving force which awakens curiosity, compassion, and creativity.

A Flame Transformed

As we slow down and become aware (mindfulness), respond with a desire to understand and be understood (nondefended learning), and respond with compassion (nonviolence), we begin to realize the Sacred Worth and Value of All.  The individual flames now move together to create a fire that draws us together to celebrate Whom-We-Have-Become.

London 2012 Summer Olympics: Olympic Cauldron

Questions for this week:

• How do I find my internal flame: flickering or well-tended?
• In what ways am I nurturing the flames of Self and Others?
• Where am I living the values and desires of my heart?
• When am I listening to and encouraging the values and desires of others?

A Heart On Fire

May this New Year inspire a burning desire to do good, and borrowing the words of St. Francis: 

• Not so much to be consoled, as to console;
• To be understood, as to understand;
• To be loved, as to love.

Larry Gardepie